Helena  in the Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal as seen on the live webcam of the Autoridad del Canal de Panama.
Archive for 2010|Yearly archive page
Setting sail for Panama
In Voyages on 24/05/2010 at 16:31
SY Helena is ready to go with full provisioning and complete repairs done!!! Rolf is sailing with the new crew: Arent Brink, Marie-Andree Lafrance and Matthew Nicklin. Read the rest of this entry »
Pimpin’ da boat
In Helena on 20/05/2010 at 16:42St Kitts is behind us now and we’ve set sail to Guadeloupe where there is an Amel yard. Since Helena is an Amel, we figured that it would be a nice place to do some large maintenance and many upgrades. Everything was nicely arranged in advance only to find out that Amel did not remember to order or prepare anything in advance, even though everything was arranged and agreed on by email in advance.
So after a big beef and some emergency stuff that could only be done by Amel, I decided not to spend anything overthere and we set sail for St Maarten again where everything is available and can be done. This trip was truly amazing with good winds and an average of 10 knots! Half way we picked up Vybrashun from St Kitts to take him on a holiday. Just for the record, he considers helping out with maintenance on board a holiday… 🙂
Matty Nicklin, St Maarten > Tahiti + Singapore > SA
In Crew on 13/05/2010 at 08:34
We met Matty in 2010 through an internet dating service for sailors called Sailing Networks. Matty has been a good friend ever since and has joined us all the way to Tahiti for many months.
We are happy that Matty returned to Helena in August 2012 to sail her across the Indian Ocean. This time crewing with Rikard and Mauritio.
Vybrashun, St Kitts > St Maarten
In Crew on 15/04/2010 at 08:31
Vybrashun is the guy that has been looking after us on St Kitts. He is the greatest engineer I have ever met in the Caribbean. We picked him up on the way back to St Maarten and he stayed with us for 2 weeks after that, helping out with anything that needed to be done on board. We are all very thankful for his help on board!
Marie-Andree Lafrance, St Maarten > Tahiti
In Crew on 14/04/2010 at 08:27
Marie was coming along for an overnight trip to Guadeloupe. What she didn’t know was that Arent and Rolf had sabotaged the driveshaft and in that way tricked her into a long stay on Helena while being stuck on St Kitts. Seriously, who wants to lose another great cook? She never left the ship since and she has joined us all the way to French Polynesia. Yes, we did chain her to the ship… I should also mention that she’s a great helmswoman and does extremely well on sailtrim!!!
Arent Brink, St Maarten > Tahiti
In Crew on 13/04/2010 at 08:23
Arent is Rolf’s cousin who has lived on St Maarten since puberty. This obviously has spoiled him and has given him the impressive ability to talk the shirt of any woman. He has sailed most of the world’s oceans himself with his catamaran Airee, so he invited himself on board Helena to join on the trip to Tahiti. Since St Maarten has the old tradition of blackmailing, he blackmailed me into accepting him with some none-compromising pictures. Since I always appreciate traditional approaches, I decided to forget about the pictures and let him come on board anyway. (Don’t ask about the pics, I’ll never tell!)
Arent is a great sailor who never lets any situation get out of hand. He joined us all the way to Tahiti.
Baziel de Leeuw, Amsterdam > St Maarten
In Crew on 30/03/2010 at 07:58
Stuck on St Kitts
In People, Voyages on 25/03/2010 at 20:36Hey all! Finally an update from Helena in the Carib… Since the last update we have had many adventures at the grenadines, St Vincent where we celebrated Baziel’s birthday with the crew of  the Black Swan, St Lucia where we were hanging out with Melanie and Roderick, Martinique and Antigua. Longer stories will follow soon.
As many of you may already know, Baziel is back home and currently I’m sailing around with several different people. I have met up at St Martin with Arent Brink, my cousin and I have also met Marie Lafrance who is currently still onboard Helena. Arent and Marie were supposed to come along for an overnight trip to Guadeloupe, but on the way the transmission shaft broke off, so we got stuck on St Kitts waiting for new parts. Read the rest of this entry »
Peter van der Waal, Atlantic crossing
In Crew on 16/03/2010 at 08:17
Peter is one of Rolf’s regular sailing buddies. He had the dream of crossing the Atlantic and made it come true (just like Markus). He made the best impressions by managing to make anything in the kitchen. He made us bitterballen (dutch thing…), stroop (dutch sugar sirup) and applepie. Oh yeah, he also likes to make pictures of himself, so here you go.
sailing yacht Helena 